The Online Photographer

...Well, classic portrait photography as well as all the boudoir-ish signifiers of sexuality so common in current fashion photography, I'd say. Much fashion photography seems more interested in models and their bodies than the often provocative or skimpy "fashions" they happen to be wearing. (As far as fashion photography goes, I prefer Bill Cunningham -style fashion-on-the-hoof photography of the sort practiced by The Sartorialist, which intersects not only with fashion but with street portraiture of the Humans of New York variety.)

Too much sexuality-signifier fashion and it's almost a relief to alight on Angels, a book in which clothing is mainly dispensed with altogether. This one's a best-seller, probably deservedly so. "Russell James has spent 15 years being the primary photographer for the lovely and fascinating women who have been featured by Victoria's Secret over the years. [...] This ample volume showcases these heavenly representations of womanhood in all their splendor. Subtly provocative in a tastefully seductive manner, these portraits capture each model's individual blend of physical attractiveness and beguiling personality." Those, in case you need it pointed out, are correct code-words for "soft porn."

If that's what you like, you might enjoy Frank De Mulder's Glorious, published by guess who.

But rather than look further in that particular direction, let's take the fork in that road and arrive at fine-art nudes, of which Ralph Gibson's Nude is an outstanding recent example (finally, a publisher other than teNeues: this one's put out by Taschen).

I got to go out photographing with Ralph on one of my few jaunts out of the bunker, in the 1990s. A studio visit too, on which occasion he gave me a stack of his then-recently published books. One was a small volume of nudes, an extended portrait of his then (and maybe still, I don't know) girlfriend. A charming little book of mostly nudes called A Propos De Mary Jane. I still have it and still like it. [UPDATE: Apparently Mary Jane Marcasiano is married to Ralph, or was as of 2010 according to what we can find out. Mary Jane is the founder of Made With Love, a global initiative dedicated to raising funds and awareness for NGOs aiding women and children in need through the production and sale of products that provide a fair income for women in Brazil and Africa. Thanks to Hugh Crawford for this. —Ed.]

(Also—geekery alert—Ralph showed me his Leitz enlarger, which he had purchased from Robert Frank. It is the selfsame one which Robert Frank had used to print the original pictures for The Americans. I told him the enlarger belongs in the Smithsonian Institution when he's done with it.)

Ralph's nudes of his GF [wife—see above] gets me at last back home to my own favorite genre of pictures of women, which is the old and honorable motif of photographers who have made loving extended portraits of their own wives. Emmet Gowin's pictures, in his first book, of Edith (who I met once as well—she speaks in a high twang that startled me at first); Harry Callahan's pictures of Eleanor, which, taken altogether, are probably the pinnacle of this particular genre (that's a nice article at the link if you know Callahan's work); or Lee Friedlander's many pictures over many years of Maria:

Lee Friedlander with his wife and frequent muse Maria
in 1963 (above) and 1997 (below). Both photos by Lee Friedlander.

But those kinds of photographs are about love and not just sex, so maybe they're outside the scope of this post.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

The flesh and the spirit abideth not here

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Jim Simmons: "I don't think Lee would be Lee without Maria, and I think he knows it. To be married to someone who understands and values your work is a gift."

Ken: "Woulda been nice to get an NSFW warning with a link saying click here to read the rest of this blog. I think I'll just stop perusing your blog for a while. Not to say I don't like seeing pictures of pretty women, but I reckon at least some people (besides me) check out your blog during breaks at work and this is not very helpful. Nude book covers are still nudes, a big no-no in today's corporate America."

Mike replies: I think we're very considerate. These are book covers, and way beyond tame. Isn't there any limit to how prudish we have to be?

Marcelo Guarini: "Just from watching the cover photos of the books, and those that accompany each one of them on the Amazon site, I am so attracted to those of Ralph Gibson. I love the play of light and shadow, and the tight composition of his photographs. He is really a true master and artist. When I was doing my Ph.D at U of A, I took away many hours to admire his originals at the Center for Creative Photography."

Anonymous: "So why aren't there any penis heads being photographed and displayed as art photography? Oh wait, that would be called porn, but tits and female ass, well that's different because the man says so."

Mike replies: Oh, but there are. Never heard of Vivienne Maricevic or Robert Mapplethorpe? RM's major book is back in print again. And "soft" male nudes have a long and distinguished history among photography books (as you'll see at any well-stocked big-city bookstore's photography section), as well as among art photographers, and in fashion photography as well of course. You could go all the way back to pictorialists like Wilhelm Von Gloeden, F. Holland Day (this is in print now but Estelle Jussim's is the classic work), and early fashion photographers such as George Platt Lynes. For some male-body-inflected fashion photography, check Herb Ritts or Bruce Weber among many others. All that's just the tip of a very extensive iceberg.

As for why it's males who usually objectify visuals, check standard sociobiology (a.k.a. evolutionary biology, a.k.a. evolutionary psychology) texts. The seminal work is Edward O. Wilson's Sociobiology, out in a beautiful twenty-fifth anniversary edition, although I think the abridged edition is more recommendable, because really, who has time to read a lot of sociobiology?

Photo by Wilhelm von Gloeden. That's not a cigar, it's a flute.

The only heterosexual female counterpart to male photographers making extended portraits of their wives that I can think of off the top of my head is that Sally Mann did a book of pictures of her husband Larry. The book, called Proud Flesh, is out of print, but some of the pictures can be seen here.

Wait, one more just popped into my mind—the editorial photographer Kate Hutchinson has done a lot of photographs of her new love then new husband Chris. It's not a book that I know of, just a category on her website.